City Begins Process To Settle Lawsuits With Washington Blvd. Flooding Victims' Families
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The clerk at Pittsburgh City Council read four bills totaling $375,000 to settle lawsuits brought as a result of the Washington Boulevard drowning deaths in 2011.
The bills were formally introduced at council Tuesday morning.
"Providing for a warrant in the amount of $100,000 in favor of W. Christopher Griffith, personal representative of the estate of Kimberly A. Griffith, deceased," read one of the bills.
The Griffith family lost three - Kimberly, the mother and wife, daughter Mikaela, described by her father as the cuddler, and second daughter Brenna, described as the one with spunk.
When Christopher Griffith announced he was filing suit in February of 2013, he described his pain.
"It's a day-to-day struggle," he said then. "It's something that should not have happened and I'd like to make sure it's corrected so it doesn't happen to anybody else."
That's why a lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Griffith family and on behalf of the family of 72-year-old Mary Saflin, the fourth victim.
Other agencies, including Alcosan and the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority are expected to offer settlements as well.
Since then, traffic gates have been installed to keep traffic off of the road when floodwaters rise. They have been effective so far, but they're not enough in the opinion of Councilman Dan Gilman.
"That's treating the symptom, not the problem," he said. "We need a solution that's not about putting a gate down when an incident occurs, but how to stop the flooding from the beginning in the first place."
Gilman, who once worked with Mayor Bill Peduto when he was a councilman, says they both learned during the floods that longer term solutions will take money, time and the cooperation of federal, state and local environmental agencies.
"There's actually water that comes from the other side of the river that when it rains gets shipped over and goes to that spot," says Mayor Peduto. "It needs to be a part of the comprehensive plan as we solve our combined sewer overflow. That project itself will be several billion dollars and will take about 20 years. Independently, we could never have the resources to fix that just one and we shouldn't. It should be part of the entire watershed issue."
City Council is expected to vote on its portion of the lawsuit settlement in the next few weeks.
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